A Vastness That Is The Sea
by Red-Like-Lithium
Summary: They've finally made it. [Eremika, Armin, slight romance & humor.]


_A/N: Little one-shot/drabble thing I wrote while on vacation. ...I don't know if the vacation part explains the ending to this._

_I don't own Shingeki no Kyojin, just my writing._

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><p><strong>A Vastness That Is The Sea<strong>

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><p>.<p>

.

"It's beautiful."

His eyebrows raise slightly and he sighs heavily, deeply, thoughtfully. Her grip tightens ever so slightly, assuring that he does not slip away from her shoulder and collapse. They are both exhausted, but he cannot stand so she lends him her assistance - no matter how embarrassed, he is still grateful.

The tide reaches up to their knees and it's cool, _cold_, not unbearable but nowhere near warm. Waves rush by, almost knocking the remaining soldiers off their feet. But she is _strong_ and manages to hold herself and the young man up. His dark hair brushes against her cheek and she bites her lower lip, understanding his weariness but refusing to fall.

"Not so much beautiful," he whispers hoarsely, "as it is _intimidating_."

"Vast."

"Fucking _enormous_."

She peers over at him with narrowed eyes and murmurs, "Eren."

He laughs dryly and attempts to backtrack. "So very vast."

Mikasa almost smiles - _almost_ - and turns her attention back to the unending stretch of blue...blue, green, a canvas of dark hues that create this monstrosity that is the ocean. Or at least, it is the conclusion they came to. The book depicted an immeasurable body of water with so much salt, even the merchants could not drain it all to sell. Eren has already dipped his fingers into the bubbling brine, licked them, wrinkled his nose at the taste and coughed on the _salt_.

"We lost too many," he claims, a hint of strain in his throat. "It cost us too much to get here..."

He thinks of those who have died, of Marco all those years ago, of the squad who protected him, of his close friends who cannot be beside him now, of Humanity's Strongest who went down in an epic clash of Titans and humans. A knot forms in his chest and he feels like he might cry when Mikasa shifts his weight suddenly.

Eren watches her from the corner of his vision as she balances him against her smaller anatomy (he tries to help, tries to keep himself erect). He is surprised when she pulls off her scarf, the scarlet one he gave her so, so long ago. To think she still has it, with its burn holes from the blood of _Kyojin_ and stains from blood of comrades, leaving unraveling strings and darker splotches.

Mikasa shoves him skyward - apparently he was sinking from her hold - and steadies him. Eren clenches his jaw, confused when she wraps the cloth around her neck first, then his, tying it loosely in between and below their chins. He blinks slowly, glancing over at her.

She is covered in bandages, like all of them (except him, he cheats, he has a "gift"), bandages that are mostly concealed by her uniform, her jacket, her 3DMG. The small scar on her face catches his eye and he mentally winces with guilt. She is beaten and bruised - but she is _alive_.

"You seemed cold," Mikasa tells him, a light pink surfacing on her pale skin.

Eren isn't quite sure how to react, so he settles for swallowing real hard and weakly hugging her a bit closer with the one arm he can still lift. He ponders for a long time, trying to decide on a meaningful sentence to offer her, but nothing is coming to mind and it's a little irritating. The scarf tickles his nose and he inhales quietly, lowering his gaze to stare at the violent yet residing surge.

And as the swell flows out, heaves forward, gulps back, crawls up the beach again, he realizes what he should have already said hundreds of time before.

"Thank you, Mikasa."

Her muscles kind of tense and her brow knits in a way that makes her look like that little girl who he found in the kidnappers' house, like an innocent, defenseless child with long, black hair (cut short) and fearful, inky irises (full of courage). Tiny and frail (grown and powerful), shattered (mended).

Eren looks at her, at how much she has matured, noting the details he had failed to notice all this time. Misty spray from the sea clings to her lashes, making them glisten, and he decides it best to forget about the welling tears mingling with that vapor, the tears she forces back, the ones he is too tired to wipe away if they just so happen to fall. Luckily, they do not, and instead, Mikasa smiles.

She smiles, and he does too, and it feels so great because the two of them have wept and screamed and gritted their teeth and it is just so goddamned refreshing to smile for once.

The ocean is vast, and the ocean is _theirs_.

There is an awkward grunt from behind them, and Eren cranes his neck to see while Mikasa twists on her heel.

Armin is there, battered and broken but breathing and heart beating, sitting in the sand while water cascades past him, soaking the boy to the bone. His blonde hair is pulled back and there is dirt in his nails and dark circles under his lids and his Wings of Freedom are clipped but not grounded, still soaring, because he finally gets to witness this beauty that is the sea - -

Armin smirks real wide, resting his arms on his knees as another wave pushes past his defeated but victorious figure, and he says to them rather loudly, "Guys...get a room."

.

.

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><p><span><em>~Finish~<em>


End file.
